TradesBuilders

Build the Business, Not Just the HouseFixed price contracts, thin margins and slow progress claims are a business problem, not a building problem.

This is for the licensed builder who owns the company: the one signing fixed price contracts, carrying the cost escalation, chasing progress claims and holding the licence. Everything here is about running the building business properly, so the jobs stop running you.

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A painted scene of a timber framed house on its slab with the roof trusses up, builders working along the top plate against an open sky

The week this is about

Running A Building Business Looks Like This.

The fixed price you signed eleven months ago

Timber and steel moved after you signed. The client holds a contract with a fixed number on it and no interest in your supplier invoices. You wear the difference, job after job, and it comes straight out of the margin you priced.

Variations done on a handshake at the site

The client asked for the extra window while you stood in the mud. You did it. Now the final claim is disputed, and under the NSW Home Building Act and QBCC rules a variation must be written and signed before you can enforce it.

Sunday night doing the claim schedule again

Lock-up went through on Thursday. The claim should have been out Friday. Instead you are at the kitchen table pricing next week's job, working out who chases the plasterer, and the invoice from the frame supplier is due on Monday.

Stay there and you keep building other people's homes on your own overdraft, until the day a single bad job takes the licence with it.

A trade business owner working alone at the kitchen table late at night, laptop open and paperwork spread across the table, work boots and tool bag by the door

How we help

Nine Ways We Help Builders.

Every one of these is a way building business owners get out from under the business and start running it properly. Start wherever it hurts most.

Training

Builder Business Training

Structured training that turns what builders know on the tools into a business that runs properly.

Coaching

Builder Business Coach

Greg Allan in your corner, holding builders to the plan. By application.

Systems

Builder Business Systems

Systems builders build on their own data, so the work runs properly without them standing there.

Software

Builder Business Software

Software builders build on their own data, instead of renting tools built for every trade at once.

Business apps

Builder Business Apps

The simple screens builders build for their crew and customers, on their own data.

AI for Building Businesses

AI agents that do the office work for builders, their way, so people stay on customers and the crew.

Marketing and leads

Builder Business Marketing

How builders get the phone ringing with the jobs worth having, not just the cheap ones.

Pricing and profit

Builder Business Pricing

The number builders should actually be charging, worked out properly rather than guessed.

Hiring and team

Builder Business Hiring

How builders build a crew that does it right without being watched.

A trade business owner watching his child play sport on a Saturday morning, coffee in hand and phone face down — Nights and weekends back

A trade business owner and his partner in the kitchen looking at a tablet showing the numbers going up — Work that actually pays

A trade business owner shaking hands with a new apprentice in the work yard — A good hire who stays

A trade business owner standing calmly in the yard while his crew load two utes behind him — Out of the middle of everything

Worth knowing

Two Things Every Builder Running A Business Should Know.

Construction accounted for 2,832 company insolvencies in FY2023-24, roughly 27 percent of all Australian company collapses, the highest of any industry.

Source: UNSW Sydney, construction insolvency analysis

A Queensland builder in financial category SC1 must hold at least $12,000 in net tangible assets, and SC2 at least $46,000, or the licence itself is at risk.

Source: QBCC, Minimum Financial Requirements

Greg Allan mid-explanation with his hands open, talking to a trade business owner across a desk

Why Greg

You speak to the owner who has already done it.

Greg built Response Electricians in Perth into a 30+ staff business with 1,950+ five-star reviews. A general manager runs it.

He has trained 9,000+ trade business owners across Australia and New Zealand.

He grew a coaching company to 35 staff, a CEO and 15 coaches, then cut it back so every owner deals with him directly.

Most coaching companies hand you to a salesperson, then to a coach who has never run a trade business. Here you get the owner.

Read how Greg built a trade business that runs without him

What changes for you

The old way. The new way.

Illustration: a trade business owner standing over three office staff buried in paperwork at night. — The old way
More customers meant more people doing the computer work, and more wages nobody invoices.

Illustration: a tradesman shaking hands with a homeowner in her driveway, his phone showing jobs quoted and invoiced. — The new way
You stay with your customers and your team. The office stops landing on you.

The old way

More jobs. More paperwork. Less of the owner left.

Most trade businesses grow the same way.

More jobs means more quoting, invoicing, chasing and scheduling.

None of it gets paid for.

So the owner does it at night, after a full day on site.

Or hires an office person to do it.

The office grows. The wages grow. The margin does not.

And the owner is still the one everything waits on.

Where we take you

More work. More profit. More of you left.

The phone rings with the jobs you want, at the price you set.

You grow when you're ready, never faster than the business can carry.

Every job is priced to make money, so the busy months show up in the bank.

The best tradies in your area want to work for you, and they stay.

The chasing, the paperwork and the 9pm admin stop landing on you.

The business runs the day. You pick which parts of it you're in.

Bigger, without the headaches. Getting bigger stops meaning getting busier.

9,000+tradies trained4.9★Google rating4.9★App Store rating

Questions

Builders Ask Us These.

What licence do I need before I can contract building work?

It depends on your state and the value of the work. Queensland requires a QBCC licence above $3,300, New South Wales above $5,000 and Victoria registration above $10,000. Cert IV in Building and Construction is the usual qualification pathway. In New Zealand it is the national Licensed Building Practitioner scheme for restricted building work. Getting licensed is step one, running it profitably is what we train.

How long does it take to get a builders licence?

It varies sharply by state. Queensland is around five months minimum through QBCC once experience and financial evidence are assembled, while New South Wales can be roughly eight weeks. The paperwork is not the hard part. The hard part is having a business behind the licence that can carry the jobs it lets you sign, which is what the training and working with Greg build.

Do I need home warranty insurance on every job?

Not every job, but the thresholds are low. New South Wales requires HBCF cover through icare on residential work over $20,000, Queensland's Home Warranty Scheme starts above $3,300 with the contractor paying the premium, and Victoria requires VMIA domestic building insurance over $16,000. New Zealand has no compulsory scheme, only optional guarantees such as Master Build. Your eligibility limit is set by your financials.

Which edition of the National Construction Code applies to my homes right now?

NCC 2022 still governs residential work, including the 7-star NatHERS energy rating and the livable housing provisions. Residential NCC changes are paused to mid-2029, and New South Wales has announced it will adopt the next code in May 2027. NCC 2025 changes are mostly commercial. New Zealand runs its own Building Code, not the NCC. Knowing which rules bite is part of costing a job properly.

Straight answers

Answers for Builders.

A new question from building business owners, answered every day.

How do I choose a builder business coach?

Every answer for builders

Other trades

See all twelve trades

A painted scene of a trade business owner home before dark, sitting on the tray of his ute while his son runs to meet him

Join the Waitlist to Work With Greg.